No pain . . . no gain!

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him . . . (Philippians 3:7-9)

We tend to gain a lot of things over the course of a lifetime. If we simply look back over the last year, we can probably name a few things we have now that we did not have a year ago. Not all things are good either!

However, what we have gathered . . . what we have accomplished . . . what we have obtained has not real value if Christ was not included in the gathering. Most of what we name has good memories. We gain education, friendships, rewards in sports, job promotions, and the like. Some may have gathered wealth, homes and cars. Yet what have we really gained?

I have found that it is the losses that we really gain in life. This is where we learn the real life lessons . . . lessons that last an eternity! 

We all have heard the expression in the gym; No pain, No gain! It is true in our spiritual walk as well. The pains and losses we go through in life are where we gain the closeness of God. We feel His presence. We run to Him and trust in Him more. Failures cause us to communicate with Him more and we receive the richness of His presence and comfort. The pain we experience leads to a gain in our relationship with Jesus!